The NFL Players Association will consider changes to the so-called junior rule, union chief Gene Upshaw said, after the number of underclassmen declaring for the NFL draft increased over last year and more sought draft evaluations from the league.
The new rule, which bars agents from contacting third-year, or “true,” juniors until mid-January, has been criticized by agents and others, who say that it actually hurts juniors, as well as ethical agents, and that it has not done what it was supposed to do: keep college players not ready for the NFL from giving up their college eligibility.
Last week, the NFL accepted 53 underclassmen into the NFL draft, up from 40 players last year. It is not known how many are true juniors and how many are redshirts. Redshirt sophomores are also eligible to declare.
The NFL received about 200 requests for a draft ranking from the NFL, up from about 150 to 160 such requests the year before, Upshaw said. Noting that there were almost as many college underclassmen asking the NFL for advice on their draft grades as there are slots in the seven-round draft, he said the requests were overloading the system.
“We will look at all aspects of this rule, take a one-year review of it,” Upshaw said.
The NFLPA’s Committee on Agent Regulation and Discipline will discuss potential changes to the rule at the NFL combine, after meeting with player agents, he said. Recommended changes will be voted on at the NFLPA’s annual meeting in March.
But Upshaw warned that he had no intention of scrapping the rule, despite the increase in underclassmen in the draft. “There are a lot of reasons players come out. It has nothing to do with the rule,” he said.
Some agents and industry insiders, however, say the reason more juniors are declaring for the draft is they are getting bad advice from unscrupulous agents and younger agents trying to break into the business. Sources said the NFLPA was investigating numerous allegations of NFLPA-certified agents breaking the rule.
Upshaw said he couldn’t comment on whether there were investigations, but one agent said Upshaw told agents last year that the union would strictly enforce the rule and not hesitate to suspend offenders.
| COMING OUT EARLY |
| The number of underclassmen who have made themselves eligible for the NFL draft has fluctuated over the last five years. |
 Year | No. of players entered | Number undrafted (%) |
| 2007 | 40 | 11 (28) |
| 2006 | 62 | 28 (45) |
| 2005 | 57 | 19 (33) |
| 2004 | 44 | 9 (20) |
| 2003 | 54 | 22 (41) |
Note: The NFL has accepted 53 underclassmen for the 2008 draft.
Source: NFL Record & Fact Book |
The agent, who asked not to be named because he did not want to speak out publicly against the union, said he didn’t recruit any true juniors this year. “But if I see 25 agents getting away with [violating the junior rule],” he said, “next year it’s going to be the wild, wild west.”
The success of the rule at persuading unlikely draftees to stay in college won’t be known until April 26-27, when the teams make their picks. Todd McShay, director of college scouting for ESPN’s Scouts Inc., who puts out a mock draft for ESPN, said that of the 53 college underclassmen who declared, 15 don’t get “draftable grades” in his estimation. That would be 28 percent, the same percentage of underclassmen that went undrafted last year when 40 declared and 11 weren’t picked.
But McShay added that the number of undrafteds will probably be even higher because they have had less time to train than their senior counterparts.
“I think it’s awful, what they have done,” McShay said. “They are putting the juniors at a disadvantage.”
The problem is that juniors are not able to start training for the NFL combine until after the January deadline for contact with agents, because it’s agents who pay for and control many of the slots at the top programs.
The top-ranked true junior going into the draft, Arkansas running back Darren McFadden, started training about four days before NFLPA-certified agents were allowed to contact him, but that was because Nike, which is interested in signing McFadden to an endorsement deal, picked up the tab.
David Cornwell, a personal lawyer to pro athletes who is serving as McFadden’s attorney, would not comment on the Nike relationship or on McFadden. But he said the junior rule, though well-intentioned, may have created more problems than it was attempting to solve.
Cornwell said the agent-athlete recruiting process has two parts: “One is building the relationship and the other is educating a young man about his business.”
“My experience this year is demonstrating that the education … is not taking place and the young men are making decisions on relationships only. No doubt having a relationship is important, but it is a poor substitution for understanding your business.”
